Episode Details

Amber Thomas:
It's kind of a hard standard because you have to seek perfection. And I don't believe in perfection in like real life.

Anthony Godfrey:
What are some of the myths about cheer?

Amber Thomas:
People misunderstand the athleticism that's required. The good is that now the girls and the boys can say that they're a sport, you know, that's great.

Anthony Godfrey:
Right.

Amber Thomas:
We get to get the trophy that everybody else gets.

Anthony Godfrey:
Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. They are incredible athletes who are keeping school spirit alive at home games and away and throughout the halls of Bingham High School.

On this episode of the Supercast, we meet cheer coach Amber Thomas and her talented squad of cheerleaders at Bingham High School. Find out what it takes to make it in cheer and how Miss Thomas inspires her team to be at their very best.

We're here at Bingham High School talking today with Amber Thomas, cheer coach, instructional coach, and teacher. Thanks for taking a few minutes.

Amber Thomas:
You're welcome. This will be fun.

Anthony Godfrey:
I understand that you just won the first competition of the year.

Amber Thomas:
Yeah, we did just barely. We went to Bountiful High School with both of my teams. JV and Varsity both won their division. So it was a super good start to this season.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's fantastic.

Amber Thomas:
We have our national qualifier on Saturday at Mountain America Expo Center.

Anthony Godfrey:
So once things start, they don't stop.

Amber Thomas:
No, then all your weekends are gone.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, you know what I love is that years ago I was on the sidelines with you. I don't know if you remember this and I said, "Well, have a great weekend when it starts." And you said, "This is my weekend. This is what I love. This is what I love to do”

Amber Thomas:
Yep, yep. Games and then cheer. That's what we do.

Anthony Godfrey:
So tell me about how the competition is structured. You won this previous competition. You have another one coming up this weekend. January is regionless. Is that right?

Amber Thomas:
Yep, we are going to do region here at Bingham High School.

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh, it's a home-court advantage.

Amber Thomas:
Yeah, we typically don't do region. They have divisionals for cheer, but our principal here at Bingham, Rodney Shaw, encouraged us to do region and we're going to host it on January 8th. So it'll be fun. But we'll do three routines there. So we do our show cheer, which we compete at all the competitions. We're going to do a cheer that includes both of my programs and then a sideline dance, which is a majority of the girls.

Anthony Godfrey:
So tell me about the first type, the show cheer. What does that involve?

Amber Thomas:
That involves elite stunting and tumbling and pyramids and like all the things that are super skilled. It's 70% of our score. And then the cheer is only 15% and then the sideline dance is 15%.

Anthony Godfrey:
So the sideline dance is the same thing that you would be doing in a game?

Amber Thomas:
Yeah, with more finesse.

Anthony Godfrey: